Luyioth Astra
placeholder Luyioth Astra is a field agent with the Republic SIS. She is working as an intelligence analyst under the command of the Task Force Aurek intelligence liaison, Evonne Harper, following a request for additional intelligence staff to meet the initially underestimated workload. Early life Luyioth was born as the oldest of two in the underworld of Coruscant, on level 1313. Her family - containing her father Bruenor Astra, mother Melfina Spero, and younger brother Cubber Astra - lived in poverty as was fairly common on the lower levels; they lived in a cramped two-bedroom apartment secured through Bruenor's work in smuggling spice to the higher levels, with relative security against break-ins compared to other residents. She was reportedly distant and perceptive even as an infant, initially concerning her parents that she might be unwell and eventually leading them to the belief that, even at a young age, she was completely aware of the situation her family was in. She reportedly only showed consistent affection towards Cubber, who was born 4 years after her. At approximately age 7, Luyioth started to display an increasing interest in Bruenor's work, specifically how he managed to sneak into the higher levels. He flat out refused to teach her what he knew, telling her to find something more wholesome. Eager to prove herself, Luyioth took to the streets and tried her hand at various petty crimes - mostly theft, bulgalry and pickpocketing - which she picked up surprisingly fast despite her young age, much to her fathers surprise. At 12 years of age, Bruenor's health began to deteriorate following a life of high-risk crime and at 13 years of age, fearing that he might run out of time, he took her underneath his wing. In his younger life, Bruenor was something of a famous smuggler in the Coruscant underworld, known to be able to sneak almost anything smaller than a starfighter into the upper levels for the right, often expensive price. Throughout his whole career he only took 1 person under his wing as an apprentice who eventually betrayed him, gravely wounding him in an event that would lead to him meeting Melfina, where he would eventually settle down smuggling spice to support a family. The news of Bruenor taking on a new apprentice, even being his own daughter, was a shock to the underworld. Many expectant eyes fell on Luyioth, including the concealed eyes of the Coruscant Security Force. Rise to power in the underworld Over the next approximately 4 and a half years, Luyioth studied underneath her father smuggling spice and eventually much more, in a move that stirred up the underworld even further. She learned and developed skills such as fighting, stealth, slicing and coercion at a surprisingly fast rate, much like she did petty crime in her childhood. Throughout this process, Luyioth became closer and even affectionate towards her father, something which never originally happened. In the later ages of her apprenticeship, Bruenor's health continued to deteriorate at an increasingly concerning rate, which prompted him to eventually decide to inherit all that he had to her so that she might continue to support the family when he eventually passed away. At approximately 17 and a half, after Luyioth took over Bruenor's old network of contacts and merged it with her own albiet more meagre one, she succeeded Bruenor's tutelage and became the primary income in the family; shortly after, Bruenor was too ill to leave his bed. Not long before her Luyioth's 18th birthday, he passed away. Following Bruenor's death, Luyioth reportedly stopped taking jobs for a time before abruptly returning to the underworld, taking bigger and bolder jobs than she ever had before. Reportedly, she felt responsible to take up the responsibilities of her father as her successor, but not only that: she dreamed of a better life for her family, something she always wanted as a child but never got, and began to seek out the credits and contacts required to make that happen. She became quickly known as the "Legacy of 1313" throughout the underworld, a name that soon grew both respected and feared as her influence grew. Luyioth, after nearly 2 and a half years of smuggling, network building, and eliminating competitors and would-be assailants, became the de-facto ruler of floor 1313 through her influence and network. In a move that made underworld history, she reorganized her contact network into something of an organization, containing everything from lieutenants with assigned territory to govern to enforcers and even assassins. After securing her grip on level 1313, she began her expansion to other floors, which was challenged to various degrees of success time and time again. Luyioth's expansion was slow at first, progressing floor by floor in a bloody series of wars and plots. After 7 floors came under her almost entirely undisputed authority - floors 1308 to 1315 - progress sped up significantly and at an ever-increasing rate; it got to the point where she'd declare her intention to subjugate a floor and the underworld sects would rather conform and subjugate as to preserve influence instead of fight. Luyioth became known as an excellent spymaster, and rightly so: as her skills improved, whole floors would fold with less and less bloodshed, whether through blatant coercion or intricate plots. "The legacy of 1313" became a household name in the lower levels of Coruscant. While many underworld sects were happy to be a part of a much larger and ultimately successful organization, many grew more and more concerned with her ruthless expansion. The CSF sent a number of undercover operatives into the lower city, a number of which proved themselves and found membership in Luyioth's organisation with a few even coming to Luyioth's personal command; a number also never made it home. In the floors above Luyioth's territory, the very same man who once studied under and betrayed her father formed his own organization, using what he did to Luyioth's father as his right to rule and intending to defeat and usurp her organization, with the annouced intention of "preserving the freedom of the lower floors." He drew a total of 6 floors to his command with a number of contacts in many others. After expanding to a total of 21 floors, Luyioth's newfound competitor held a meeting with all of his lieutenants and trusted contacts. One of his contacts happened to leak the information to one of Luyioth's eager lieutenants who promptly leaked it to her. After the information was verified, the meeting site was rigged with explosives and majority of the attendees were killed in the resulting explosion. The organization was disassembled with a series of assaults, assassinations and offered positions. After leaving further expansion to one of her most trusted lieutenants for some time, she eventually settled down with a total of 113 floors under her direct command, and many hundreds of others effectively under her authority through influence and the networks of her lieutenants. Her authority became unchallenged and she became firmly known as the "Smuggler Queen". Operation: Defiance With her authority in the Coruscant underworld unchallenged, Luyioth entered negotiations with underworld sects on Naboo, planning to move her family there under protection so they might finally have a better life. Not long before she planned to get them off-world, however, Supreme Chancellor Palpatine enacted his plot to create the Galactic Empire. While Palpatine failed, the Empire continued under the rule of Emperor Tarkin. Luyioth very soon became an open advocate against the Empire and for the Republic Alliance and, using her criminal empire, secured and smuggled a number of pro-Republic senators, officials, soldiers and other such persons off-world and to Chandrila where they could return to the rest of the Republic Alliance safely. Luyioth, in a controversial move, continued to openly support the Republic Alliance despite Coruscant becoming the Imperial capital in the newly formed Empire. It was at this point Luyioth had her first contact with the Republic Strategic Information Service that she'd been aware of. In exchange for obtaining intelligence and using her criminal organization to carry out operations against the Empire on their home world, her family found their new life she'd fought for on Dantooine in exchange for credit payment and SIS support. The operation, led by Senior Agent Daclif Faroamer, was named Operation: Defiance and became one of the most controversial operations at the time in the Republic Intelligence community. Imperial response While Operation: Defiance was successful for some time - extracting hundreds if not thousands of Republic assets and even more refugees, causing hundreds of thousands of credits in damages to the Empire and leaking information of high value to the Great Galactic War - the Empire eventually tracked down the organization through counter-intelligence and responded swiftly: in a cooperative effort between the CSF and the Imperial Army, the Empire effectively waged war against Luyioth's operation. The war lasted for a staggering 3 months, consisting primarily of a slow and methodical sweep by Imperial forces against the Smuggler Queen insurgents. While the insurgents initially managed to resist using guerilla tactics and counter-operations to spread the Imperials thin, the Imperials eventually resorted to much less wholesome methods to clean out floors - insurgents and civilians alike - in a matter of days. Luyioth's organisation, cordoned down to a mere 5 floors in the final weeks of the operation, began to collapse in onto itself despite the best efforts of Luyioth and the SIS. Fearing that the initial agreement might not remain in place if she failed, Luyioth re-entered negotiations with the SIS to ensure it would remain in place. Senior Agent Daclif Faroamer, convinced that Luyioth had the skills required of an SIS agent after watching her work, revised and offered the contract once more: this time, Luyioth would abandon her organisation and become a full-time agent for the SIS in exchange for her family to remain protected on Dantooine. Luyioth accepted, and so the Smuggler Queen simply vanished and left her organisation to fall in under its own weight and disband mere days afterwards. Career blah Personality and traits blah Behind the scenes Luyioth's face-claim is Amra Cerkezovic, a Bosnian model. While the character is 5'8, Amra is 5'10. The character was originally 5'9 but the height was revised to be different to Evonne Harper. The first name "Luyioth" is recycled from a former character at Kessel Gaming, "Luyioth Dak'win", a Jedi Padawan. Her master, Akalar Thul, was roleplayed by Pundii. The surname "Astra" is recycled from the last name "Astrauckas", which is constantly recycled from community to community in the name "Levi Astrauckas". This really annoys Bronzy, Pundii and Ferris, so that's pretty great. See also blah Category:Archives